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FOSSLER 


GOETHE'S  PHILOSOPHY 


8 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


/      H     I 


«  ^w>i 


GOETHE'S  PHILOSOPHY 


Fifth  Annual  Address  Before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  February  16,  1895 


By  LAURENCE  FOSSLER,  M.A. 


LINCOLN 

PUBLISHED   BY  THE  ASSOCIATION 
1896 


GOETHE'S  PHILOSOPHY 


Fifth  Annual  Address  Before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  February  16,  1895 

I 


•    \ 
By  LAURENCE  FOSSLER,  M.A. 


I  INCOLN 
Publi  in  D  1  1    rHE  Association 
1896 


I 

JACOB  NORTH  &  CO.,  PRINTERS 
LINCOLN 


<? 


GOETHE'S  PHILOSOPHY 

[WELTANSCHAUUNG] 


Ladies  axd  Gentlemen: 

Perhaps  I  could  not  direct  your  attention  to  a  more 
interesting,  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  more  important 
theme  than  the  one  in  hand;  for  our  age  is  in  many  re- 
spects a  realization  of  Goethe's  prophetic  vision.  The 
twentieth  century  will  enter  upon  its  course  with  an  host 
trained  by  and  imbued  with  a  spirit  which  largely  owes 
its  origin,  or,  at  least,  its  chief  promulgation,  to  the  poet- 
philosopher.  I  do  not  say  that  Goethe  was  the  sine  '[ltd 
non  of  the  intellectual  light  of  our  time,  or  that  science 
would  not  have  made  giant  strides  without  him,  or  that 
the  chaotic  "Storm  and  Stress"  diction  of  his  contem- 
poraries in  literature  would  have  persisted,  or  that  the 
dignity  and  worth  of  man  would  not  be  recognized  more 
now  than  in  his  generation,  but  I  do  say  that  in  all  these 
movements  for  the  better  Goethe  has  been  a  banner- 
bearer,  his  voice  a  bugle  call  rallying  men  to  renewed 
efforts;  that  he  has,  in  fact,  been  a  leader  and  inspirer  of 
men. 

Sixty  years  ago  that  voice  was  hushed,  but  those  sixty 
years  have  been  years  of  progress  and  growth  in  well- 
nigh  all  directions.  But,  strange  to  say,  we,  for  the  first 
time,  seem  to  have  grasped  its  full  meaning  and  import 
and  spirit,  as  if  former  generations  had  not  and  could 
not  have  felt  and  understood  it;  as  if  the  voice  hud  boen 
intended  for  the  ear  of  the  twentieth  rather  than  that 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 


1 7343! 


4  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  were  we  to  trace  the  sources 
and  factors  that  ministered  to  Goethe's  intellectual  life 
and  growth,  a  life  and  a  growth  exuberant  with  healthy 
joy  and  appreciation,  whether  in  art,  or  science,  or  liter- 
ature, or  philosophy.  The  human  soul,  no  matter  how 
strong  and  vigorous  it  be  in  and  of  itself,  is  directed  and 
fashioned  by  external  influences  no  less  than  by  its  in- 
nate forces.  So,  in  this  instance,  Goethe,  speaking  with 
profound  gratitude,  frequently  pays  tribute  to  Shake- 
.speare,  to  Homer,  to  Spinoza.  These  choice  spirits  were 
his  guiding  stars;  they  taught  him  the  way  to  nature  and 
freedom,  to  high  art  and  high  thinking. 

And  yet,  of  course,  these  names  are  only  the  choicest 
representatives  of  the  influences  which  moulded  Goethe. 
His  hereditary  tendencies,  his  training  at  home  and  at 
school,  his  religious  environment,  the  tradition  of  the 
past,  his  own  day  and  generation  acted  and  reacted 
upon  him  and  helped  to  make  him  what  he  was.  From 
these  latter  influences  no  one  can  escape.  They  are  be- 
yond human  control  and  management.  Involuntarily 
each  individual  reflects  his  age;  and  all  that  can  be 
claimed  for  any  man,  whether  Caesar,  or  Dante,  or 
Goethe,  is,  that  he  has  constructed  a  type  within  himself 
of  that  which  necessarily  surrounded  him;  that  he  shaped 
and  fashioned  the  given  material  in  conformity  with  his 
individuality. 

Though  Goethe  is  the  prince  of  German  poets,  we 
shall  look  upon  him  on  this  occasion  as  the  philosopher, 
the  teacher.  In  Werther,  in  Wilhelm  Meister,  in  Faust  he 
deals  with  human  life  in  a  broad  and  comprehensive  way. 
His  aim,  in  these  works,  is  to  examine  into  the  generic, 
the  typical,  the  generalized,  the  representative.  He  es- 
chews the  special  or  accidental.  He  wishes  to  present  a 
large  view  of  life;  he  dignifies  man's  nature,  even  while 


Goethe's  Philosophy. 


laying  bare  its  defects  and  short-coinings.  He  desires 
to  see  and  to  tell  just  what  he  sees.  He  is  not  a  preacher, 
not  an  exhorter.  But  he  says:  This  is  what  I  see;  look 
at  it,  examine  it,  meditate  on  it,  test  it,  accept  it  if  you 
will,  reject  it  if  you  will,  but  this  is  the  impression  that 
this  universe  of  ours  makes  upon  me.  There  is  borne  in 
upon  Goethe  through  every  sense,  through  every  avenue 
of  access  to  his  inner  self,  a  message  from  this  universe, 
which  he  must  interpret  and  give  forth,  a  message  from 
nature  to  man,  from  man  to  man,  and  from  man  to  himself, 
a  message  which  to-day  has  been  taken  up  and  reiterated 
by  naturalist,  by  poet,  by  philosopher. 

As  already  intimated,  his  speculations  and  his  labors 
extended  not  only  in  the  direction  of  the  realms  of  motives 
and  conduct,  of  literature  and  art,  but  into  nature,  into 
science,  into  botany,  biology,  osteology,  archaeology,  into 
finance  and  administration.  There  was  scarcely  a  field  of 
inquiry  or  activity  that  did  not  attract  him.  "  Amid 
littleness  and  detail  he  detected  the  Genius  of  life,  the 
old  cunning  Proteus,  nestling  close  beside  us."  Hence 
his  largeness  of  vision,  hence  his  marvellous  resources, 
hence,  in  fact,  his  philosophy. 

Let  us,  then,  ask  ourselves:  How  did  Goethe  attempt 
to  solve  the  mysteries  of  Nature  and  God  ?  how  the  Prob- 
lem of  Evil  in  the  universe?  how  did  he  estimate  the 
Worth  and  Work  of  Life? 

In  the  first  part  of  Faust,  in  the  scene  "  Forest  and 
Cavern"  we  find  the  struggling  Faust,  having  fled  into 
the  wilds  to  escape  from  the  demons  that  were  planted  in 
his  flesh.  He  had  sought  to  flee  from  himself  and  to 
commune  with  nature  and  throw  himself  at  her  bosom. 
In  the  exaltation  and  extasy  of  his  vision,  the  vision  for 
which  he  had  longed  and  striven  and  which  was  granted 
him  in  this  holy,  retired  calm,  he  bursts  out: 


6  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

"Spirit  Sublime,  thou  gav'st  me,  gav'st  me  all 
For  which  I  prayed.     Not  unto  me  in  vain 
Hast  thou  thy  countenance  revealed  in  fire. 
Thou  gav'st  me  Nature  as  a  kjngdom  grand 
With  power  to  feel  and  to  enjoy  it.     Thou 
Not  only  cold,  amazed  acquaintance  yield'st, 
But  grantest  that  in  her  profouudest  breast 
I  gaze,  as  in  the  bosom  of  a  friend. 
The  ranks  of  living  creatures  thou  dost  lead 
Before  me,  teaching  me  to  know  my  brothers 
In  air  and  water  and  the  silent  icood."  J 

This  poetic  outburst  is  really  au  enunciation  of  Goethe's 
scientific  creed.  An  examination  into  his  conception  of 
Nature  and  her  workings  reveal  him  to  be  the  great 
champion  of  her  unity,  of  identity  in  variation.  The  dis- 
covery of  any  fact  or  facts,  the  explanation  of  any  phe- 
nomena meant,  as  he  says  himself,  "  the  synthesis  of 
world  and  mind,  giving  the  most  blessed  assurance  of  the 
eternal  harmony  of  things."  As  early  as  1786  he  had 
discovered  and  announced  the  existence  of  the  inter-max- 
illary bone  (the  bone  bearing  the  upper  incisor  teeth),  a 
bone  which  the  anatomists  and  osteologists  of  his  day  had 
not  found  nor  recognized,  and  the  absence  or  lack  of  which 
seemed  to  attest  an  essential  difference  in  the  anatomical 
structure  of  man  and  the  lower  animals.  But  Goethe's 
intuitive  craving  for  unity  would  not  admit  breaks  or 
cataclysms  in  nature's  domain.  Accordingly  this  discov- 
ery but  strengthened  him  in  his  position  and  led  him  to 
formulate  his  views  to  the  effect  that  all  differences  in  the 
anatomical  structure  of  vertebrates  were  to  be  considered 
as  variations  of  corresponding  parts ;  i.  e.,  the  wing  of  bird, 
the  fin  of  fish,  the  arm  of  man,  and  foot  of  horse  were 
really  one  and  the  same  organ,  changed  through  function 
and  environment.      This  theory   was  first  announced    in 

1  Taylor's  translation. 


Goethe's  Philosophy.  7 

1795. '  We  can  scarcely  appreciate  the  full  significance 
and  importance  of  these  statements,  till  we  remember  that 
his  contemporary,  Herder,  in  the  Ideen  zur  Philosophie 
der  GeschicMe  tier  Menschheit,  rather  held  that  man  had 
descended  from  animal  and  animals  from  plants. 

But  the  vantage  ground  thus  gained  only  opened 
larger  vistas.  If  it  were  demonstrably  true  that  the  an- 
atomical structure  of  vertebrates  was  founded  on  the 
principles  of  homology,  Goethe  felt  justified  in  advanc- 
ing another  step,  and  in  holding  that  there  existed  a 
"similar  analogy  between  the  various  parts  of  one  aud 
the  same  organic  being."  Careful  observation  of  the 
transformation  of  insects  from  the  larva  into  its  final 
stage  suggested  that  the  originally  similar  rings — the 
first  and  the  last  only  showing  any  deviation — gradually 
transform  themselves  and  develop  appendages:  those 
forming  the  thorax,  legs;  those  of  the  head,  mandibles 
and  antennae;  and  that,  consequently,  the  abdominal 
rings  conformed  to  the  original  undifferentiated  type. 
Especially  did  the  vegetable  world  engage  Goethe's  scien- 
tific interest.  He,  there,  perceived  clearly  the  transition 
from  fundamentally  similar  into  functionally  dissimilar 
organs. 

He  divined  that  leaf  and  flower  and  fruit  were  in  re- 
ality the  same  organ,  changed  to  suit  circumstances  and 
conditions,  or,  rather,  changed  by  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions. Once  possessed  of  these  facts,  he  was  led  to 
recognize  the  skull  to  be  composed  of  transformed  verte- 
brae. He  says:  "The  three  posterior  bones  (of  the 
head)  I  recognized  easily  enough,  but  only  in  the  year 
1700,  when  I  picked  up  a  fractured  sheep  skull  in  the 


lEr$ter  Entwurf  ciner  allgemeinen  Einleitung  in  die  vergleieh 
ende  Anatomie,  etc. 


8  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

Jewish  cemetery  at  Venice,  it  flashed  upon  me  that  the 
facial  bones,  too,  were  transformed  vertebrae.  Then  I 
saw  the  transition  from  the  sphenoid  into  the  ethmoid 
and  the  turbinated  bones." 

You  perceive  that  his  outlook  into  the  harmony  and 
essential  unity  of  organic  creation  became  more  and 
more  penetrating.  Let  us  guard  ourselves  lest  we  regard 
these  truisms  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  be- 
ing too  self  evident  or  of  slight  moment.  These  discov- 
eries betokened  a  new  spirit,  a  new  point  of  view,  a  new 
conception  of  nature.  They  betokened  the  entering  into 
the  splendid  domain  of  modern  science,  in  which  man  is 
to  make  lasting  conquests,  in  which  he  will  constrain  her 
to  minister  to  his  highest  intellectual  faculties,  as  well  as 
to  be  his  hand-maid  and  household  drudge.  These  views 
of  Goethe  are  so  fundamental  that  they  may  well  be  re- 
garded as  the  working  theory  of  the  nineteenth  century 
scientists.  His  views  on  evolution  and.  development  are 
manifestly  closely  akin  to  those  so  brilliantly  worked  out 
by  Darwin.  Darwin's  work,  the  Origin  of  Species,  was 
given  to  the  world  in  1859,  some  thirty  years  after 
Goethe's  death.  Only  laboriously  collected  data  could 
prove  the  correctness  of  so  widespreading  and  widesweep- 
ing  a  generalization  which  Goethe  had  formulated  only  in- 
tuitively, I  admit,  and  it  is  Darwin's  chief  title  to  our  es- 
teem, as  Prof.  Helmholtz  remarks,  "to  have  pointed  out 
the  relation  of  causes,  the  effects  of  which  are,  or  at  least 
might  be,  the  bringing  about  of  such  correspondences 
and  homologous  organs  in  the  most  widely  separated 
organisms." 

In  the  light  of  what  has  been  said  so  far  we  shall  have 
no  great  difficulty  in  appreciating  Goethe's  conception  of 
Nature  as  reflected  in  the  following  extracts  from  his 
aphorisms  on  Nature: 


Goethe's  Philosophy.  9 

"Nature!  We  are  surrounded  by  her  and  locked  in  her  clasp; 
powerless  to  leave  her  and  powerless  to  come  closer  to  her." 

"She  creates  new  forms  without  end;  what  exists  now,  never 
was  before;  what  was,  comes  not  again;  all  is  new  and  yet  always 
old." 

"Nature  is  the  sole  artist;  out  of  the  simplest  materials  (she 
produces)  the  greatest  diversity,  attaining,  with  no  trace  of  ef- 
fort, the  finest  perfection,  the  closest  precision,  always  softly 
veiled.  Each  of  her  works  has  an  essence  of  its  own;  every  shape 
that  she  takes  is  in  idea  utterly  isolated;  and  yet  all  forms  one." 

"  There  is  constant  life  in  her  motion  and  development;  and 
yet  she  remains  where  she  was.  She  is  eternally  changing,  nor 
for  a  moment  does  she  stand  still.  Of  rest  she  knows  nothiug, 
and  to  all  stagnation  she  has  affixed  her  curse.  She  is  steadfast; 
her  steps  are  measured,  her  exceptions  rare,  her  laws  immutable.'" 

"Her  springs  of  action  are  few,  but  they  never  wear  out.  They 
are  always  working,  always  manifold." 

"She  puts  gulfs  between  all  things,  and  all  things  strive  to  be 
interfused.  She  isolates  everything,  that  she  may  draw  every- 
thing together." 

"Every  moment  she  starts  on  the  longest  journeys,  and  every 
moment  reaches  her  goal." 

"  She  is  whole  and  yet  never  finished.  As  she  works  now,  so  can 
she  work  forever." 

"  Life  is  her  fairest  invention,  and  Death  is  her  device  for  hav- 
ing life  in  abundance." 

"She  hides  herself  in  a  thousand  names  and  terms,  and  is  al- 
ways the  same." 

"She  envelops  man  in  darkness,  and  urges  him  constantly  to 
the  light.  She  makes  him  depend  on  the  earth,  heavy  and 
sluggish,  and  always  rouses  him  up  afresh."  ' 

To  Goethe  Nature  was  the  living  garment  of  the  Deity, 
"der  Gottheit  lebendiges  Kleid"  woven  "in  Lebens- 
fluten,  im  Thatensturm"  (in  the  tides  of  life,  in  action's 
storm).  Nature  ever  varying,  yet  ever  the  same,  ever 
new,  yet  ever  old;  Nature  in  her  completeness,  her  adap- 
tation to  the  wants  of  her  children,  her  passivity,  her  un- 
conquerable energies,  her  vastness,  her  inapproachable- 
ness,  her  willingness  to  disclose  her  secrets  when  rightly 


•Maxims  and  Reflections  of  Goethe,  translated  by  T.   Bailey 
Saunders. 


10  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

interrogated,  Goethe  regarded  as  the  visible  manifestation 
of  God.  In  the  Gesprdche  mit  Goethe  Eckermann  tells 
how,  one  day,  some  one  presented  him  with  some  young 
nestlings.  The  parent  bird,  too,  had  been  caught;  but, 
though  liberty  was  given  to  her,  she  did  not  avail  her- 
self of  it,  preferring  to  brave  danger  and  captivity  to 
leaving  her  offspring.  Upon  expressing  his  astonishment 
at  such  parental  solicitude,  Goethe  chided  him:  "Fool- 
ish man,"  said  he,  "if  you  believe  in  God,  you  would  not 
marvel.  If  God  did  not  animate  the  bird  with  this  all- 
powerful  impulse  for  her  young,  and  if  this  same  prin- 
ciple did  not  extend  throughout  all  nature,  the  world 
could  not  stand!  But  now  this  Divine  energy  is  every- 
where, this  Love  Eternal  is  evervwhere  active."  ■  Goethe 
is  pantheistic.  He  finds  nature  to  possess  neither  speech 
nor  language,  yet  creating  "hearts  and  tongues  through 
which  she  feels  and  speaks."  He  finds  Thought,  Kind- 
ness, Love  there.  The  universe  to  him,  as  to  Spinoza, 
when  viewed  in  the  light  of  extension,  is  matter,  when 
viewed  as  thought  or  intelligence,  is  the  causa  sui,  is  God. 
The  universe  is  not  God,  yet  God  and  the  universe  are  one. 
Dr.  Hedge  defines  pantheism  as  being  "God,  the  creative 
and  ruling  power  of  the  universe,  distinguished  by  rea- 
son alone  from  the  universe  itself."  Goethe's  specula- 
tive and  religious  notions  accord  entirely  with  this  defi- 
nition. He  is  a  disciple  of  Spinoza,  a  thorough-going^ 
defender  of  the  inseparableness  of  Nature  and  God.  He 
asks: 


^ol.  II.,  p.  234.  For  other  passages,  dealing  with  this  same 
subject,  see  Gespraeche^ 'ol  II.,  pp.  190-192,  199-200.  Vol.  III.,  pp. 
22,  30,  150,  257-258,  et  al. 


Goethe  s  Philosophy.  11 

"What  God  were  he  who  only  from  without 
Impelled,  controlled  the  circles  of  his  worlds? 
Nay,  rather  does  he  move  them  from  within; 
Brooding  o'er  Nature,  Nature  housing  him. 
He  evermore  his  Spirit-power  proves 
In  that  which  in  him  is  and  lives  and  moves.'7 > 

Goethe  was  the  last  remove  from  atheism,  but  he  pro- 
tested against  anthropomorphism  in  all  its  forms.  The 
tendency  to  development,  the  correlation  of  forces  in  all 
the  countless  metamorphoses  of  tangible,  material  things, 
spoke  to  him  of  an  inscrutable  power  transcending  all  hu- 
man conception  and  refusing  to  be  comprised  in  any 
scholastic  definition,  or  creed  of  church.  "Credo  Drain. " 
be  says,  "that  is  a  fine,  a  worthy  thing  to  say;  but  to  re- 
cognize God  wherever  and  whenever  he  reveals  himself  is 
the  only  true  joy  on  earth."  Again  he  says:  "  The  finest 
achievement  for  a  man  of  thought  is  to  have  fathomed  what 
may  be  fathomed  and  quietly  revere  the  unfathomable." 

I  scarcely  need  to  point  out  the  correspondence  be- 
tween these  views  of  Goethe  and  the  philosophy  based  on 
the  ultimate  results  of  modern  science.  The  conception 
of  an  extraneous  anthropomorphic,  spasmodically  acting 
agent  or  master-mechanic  sitting  outside  his  universe, 
ruling  and  directing  it  arbitrarily  and  without  certain 
sequence,  has  been  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  past  crudi- 
ties. Creative  power  cannot  be  conceived  of  in  so  inade- 
quate and  puerile  a  way.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  it 
be  conceived  of  as  hurling  its  worlds  into  space,  leaving 
them  to  blind,  drtary,  lawless  chance.     The  latter  view  i- 

1  Was  war'  ein  Gott,  der  nur  von  aussen  stiesse, 
Im  Krois  das  All  am  Finger  laufen  liesse, 
Ihm  ziemt's  die  Welt  im  Innern  zu  hewegen, 
Natur  in  Sich,  Sich  in  Natur  zu  ho„'on, 
So  dass,  was  in  Ihm  lebt  and  webt  and  1st, 
Nie  Seine  Kraft,  nio  Seiueu  Geist  vermisst 

— Gott  und  Welt. 


12  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

as  irrational  as  the  former.  In  the  light  of  modern 
science,  the  special  or  chance  agency  theory  is  simply  im- 
possible, neither  can  we  pretend  that  the  natural  law 
theory  can  give  answer  to  ultimate  questions.  Some 
wider  and  more  fundamental  generalization  can  alone  re- 
concile the  existence  of  laws,  eternal,  unvarying,  inexor- 
able, and  "a  true  objective  reasonableness"  (the  phrase 
is  John  Fiske's)  in  the  universe.  He  says:  "There  is  a 
true  objective  reasonableness  in  the  universe;  its  events 
have  an  orderly  progression." l  And  again:  "The  pro- 
cess  of  evolution  is  itself  the  working  out  of  a  mighty 
Teleology."2 

What,  now,  is  the  only  way  to  reconcile  these  seemingly 
opposite  and  mutually  exclusive  views  of  special  or  "direct" 
agency  and  "natural  law?"  Modern  science,  or  rather 
modern  philosophy  based  on  that  science,  re-asserts  and 
amplifies  and  develops  the  views  of  an  Origan,  a  Clement, 
an  Athanasius  and  other  profound  thinkers  from  their 
time  to  the  present,  and  holds  to  a  God  imminent,  indwell- 
ing, and  inseparably  in  Nature.  In  the  words  of  Profes- 
sor Le  Conte:  "  We  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  an  infi- 
nite, imminent  Deity  behind  phenomena,  but  manifested 
to  us  on  the  outside  as  an  all-pervasive  energy."3  And 
John  Fiske:  "  In  the  swaying  to  and  fro  of  molecules  and 
the  ceaseless  pulsations  of  ether,  in  the  secular  shifting 
of  planetary  orbits,  in  the  busy  work  of  frost  and  rain- 
drop, in  the  mysterious  sprouting  of  the  seed,  in  the  ever- 
lasting pale  of  death  and  life  renewed,  in  the  dawning  of 
the  babe's  intelligence,  in  the  varied  deeds  of  men  from 
age  to  age,  (the  thinker)  finds  that  which  awakens  the 
soul  to  reverential  awe ;  and  each  act  of  scientific  explana- 

1  Idea  of  God,  p.  xi. 

2  Cosmic  Philosophy,  Vol.  2,  p.  406. 

3  Evolution  and  Its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought. 


Gocihe's  Phrtosojjhy.  13 

tion  but  reveals  au  opening    through  which  shines  the 
glory  of  the  Eternal  Majesty."  ' 

Le  Conte  compares  this  relation  of  an  imminent  Deity 
and  Nature  to  the  relation  between  mind  and  brain. 

It  is  conceivable,  he  says  in  substance,  that  an  ob- 
server, an  outside  observer,  could  detect  and  distinguish 
molecular  and  chemical  changes  accompany  in  o-  0r  condi- 
tioning psychic  activity ;  but  it  is  inconceivable  how  such 
an  observer  could  detect  the  psychic  activity  itself.  That 
could,  of  course,  only  be  known  through  consciousness, 
i.  e.,  the  psychic  state  could  only  be  known  by  the  inner 
personality.  Now  science  simply  clambers  round  on  the 
outside;  it  is  bound  to  observe  and  formulate  its  observa- 
tions into  wider  and  wider  generalizations,  but  they  can 
only  be  made  fromt  he  outside,  and  consequently,  they  can- 
not militate  against  a  conscious  personality  within. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Goethe  was  a  fit  precursor  of 
nineteenth  century  philosophy.  That  philosophy  affirms 
and  confirms  the  existence  of  a  Power — unknown  and  un- 
knowable it  is  termed  by  some — a  Power  which  underlies 
all  phenomena  as  their  very  source  and  center  and  cir- 
cumference, a  Power  or  a  God  in  whom,  to  use  St.  Paul's 
phrase,  "  We  live  and  move  and  have  our  being." 

But  now  let  us  examine  another,  and,  if  possible,  a  still 
more  profound  conception  of  Goethe's — his  ideas  of  Evil 
in  the  universe.  We  shall  find  Mephistopheles  the  sign 
and  symbol,  the  very  embodiment  of  "Evil."  Whatever 
traits  Goethe  bestowed  upon  that  most  celebrated  creation 
that  do  not  agree  with  this  view,  must  be  regarded  as  in- 
cidental ornamentation  required  by  poetic  necessities.  In 
the  Faust  story,  in  that  story  of  man's  limitation,  bewil- 
derment and  error,  in  that  story  of  a  soul's  discontent  aud 

spair  because  of   the  seeming  narrowness  and    petti- 

1  Idea  of  God,  p.  110. 


14  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

ness  of  life  and  its  opportunities,  in  that  story  in  which  is 
heard  the  clanking  of  the  chains  of  bondage  as  they  are 
shaken  into  the  very  face  of  the  Almighty,  Mephistopheles 
appears  and  offers  to  be  a  savior,  a  companion,  and  a  guide 
through  the  world  and  to  the  heart's  desires.  As  in  the 
days  of  Job,  the  Adversary  had  asked  and  obtained  per- 
mission to  "  try  the  servant,"  who,  according  to  his  view, 
served  the  Lord  "  after  strange  devices."  He  proposed  to 
i;.  ke  Faust  "eat  dust  and  with  a  zest,  as  did  a  certain 
snake,  his  near  relation."  He  had  come  to  Faust  by  suf- 
ferance of  the  Lord,  who  had  declared: 

"  Man's  active  nature,  flagging,  seeks  too  soon  the  level; 
Unqualified  repose  he  learns  to  crave. 
Whence,  willingly,  the  comrade  him  I  gave. 
Wno  works,  excites,  and  must  create  as  Devil. 

Goethe  makes  Mephistopheles  appear  in  numberless 
disguises;  he  is  a  perfect  Proteus  in  form.  There  is 
stamped  on  him,  however,  an  essential  unity,  an  identity 
of  aim  and  purpose.  As  above  stated,  he  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  opposition  to  all  order.  Nay,  more — he  is 
"Evil  "  in  the  universe,  he  is  negation,  opposition,  disin- 
tegration, destruction,  Death — both  in  the  psychic  and 
the  physical  realm;   in  the  world  of   matter  and  of  mind. 

In  answer  to  Faust's  importunities,  the  exorcised  Me- 
phistopheles defines  himself  thus: 

"I  am  the  Spirit  that  Denies!" 

and  then  he  justifies  himself  at  once  by  adding, 

"And  justly  so:  for  all  things,  from  the  Void 
Called  forth,  deserve  to  be  destroyed: 
'T  were  better,  then,  were  naught  created." 


Again . 


"All  which  you  as  Sin  have  rated— 
Destruction,— aught  with  evil  blent,- 
That  is  my  proper  element." 


Goethe's  Philosophy.  15 

Yet  this  activity,  this  personification  of  denial,  opposi- 
tion, and   destruction  of  that  which    the  fiat   of  creative 
energy    has   brought    forth    presents    nothing    startli] 
The   Hebrew  Satan,  the  Persian  Ahriman,  the   Hindoo 
Vritra,  the   Norse  Lold  stand   for  the   same  concept] 
Ail  nations  have  personified  the  powers  of  good  and  the 
powers  of  evil,  and  men  have  regarded  the  universe  as  being 
divided  between  these  two.     So  I  say,  that  there  is  nothi 
startling   in  this  conception  of  Goethe's  in   having  Me- 
phistopheles   stand    as   the  embodiment   of    evil.       It  is 
rather  these  lines  that  startle  us: — 

"Part  of  the  Part  (i.  e.,  merely  one  aspect,  one  form)  am  I,  ouce 
All,  in  primal  Night — 
Part  of  the  Darkness  which  brought  forth  the  Light." 

and  the  lines, 

"Part  of  the  Power  (I  am)  not  understood, 
\ Vnich  always  wills  the  Bad  aud  always  ivories  the  Good." 

It  is  rather  these  lines  that  contain  the  challenging  prop- 
osition. Goethe,  then,  conceives  of  the  Power,  generally 
denominated  evil,  rated  as  evil,  as  a  part  of  a  whole,  as  a 
part  of  the  power  and  energy,  and  essentially  one  with  : 
power  and  energy  in  the  universe ;  as  a  remnant,  so  to  speak, 
a  representative  of  a  former  condition;  or,  if  that  is  too 
anthropomorphic  a  conception,  as  one  aspect  of  the  stu- 
pendous, all-pervading  World-Power.  For  to  him  11. 
exists  only  "  Das  Ewig  Eine,  das  sich  vielfacJi  offenbart  " 
— the  Eternally  One,  manifesting  itself  in  most  diverse 
ways.  Goethe  caunct  conceive  of  nature,  the  whole 
boundless  domain  of  the  universe,  of  every  object  and  force, 
whether  physical  or  psychic,  whether  matter  or  spirit,  in 
any  other  way  than  that  they  are  all  parts  or  portions  of 
an  infinite  Unit.  Hence,  Mephistopheles,  though  the 
embodiment  of  evil,  though  Evil  itself,  accomplishes  th<' 
Good.     And  how?     By  destroying   the   partial   and   tin- 


16  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

incomplete.  The  evil  consists  in  the  fact  that  a  transition 
from  a  lower  to  a  higher  form  of  life  or  existence,  or,  as 
we  ordinarily  say,  an  evolutionary  process,  is  impossible 
without  the  destruction  of  any  given  state  of  being. 
Growth  of  organized  bodies  proceeds  simultaneously  with 
their  destruction.  Or,  at  any  rate,  the  "neutral  zone"  is 
exceedingly  narrow.  The  wave  of  life  is  evermore  fol- 
lowed by  the  wave  of  death.  There  is  an  eternal  forma- 
tion and  transformation,  and  eternal  dissolution  and  re- 
combining  into  new  forms.  The  Divine  creative  Energy 
must  be  accompanied  by  the  Divine  destructive  Energy. 
"Every  moment,"  he  says  of  nature,  "every  moment  she 
starts  on  the  longest  journeys,  and  every  moment  reaches 
her  goal."  Existence  means  transition;  Life  means  Death. 
Hear  Mephistopheles: 

"The  Something  of  this  clumsy  World— has  yet. 
With  all  that  I  have  undertaken, 
Not  been  by  me  disturbed  or  shaken: 
From  earthquake,  tempest,  wave,  volcano's  brand, 
Back  into  quiet  settle  sea  and  land. 
And  that  damned  stuff,  the  bestial  human  brood — 
What  use  in  having  that  to  play  with? 
How  many  have  I  done  away  with! 
And  ever  circulates  a  newer,  fresher  blood. 

#  ^c  :{:  #  ^  %  & 

From  water,  earth,  and  air  unfolding, 

A  thousand  germs  break  forth  and  grow." 

Confessedly  his  opposition,  his  uprooting,  his  destroy- 
ing are  unavailing  in  the  direction  aimed  at  by  him. 
Rather  does  his  work  avail  in  making  more  abundant  life 
possible,  in  bringing  about  the  fullness  of  life,  through 
progress  and  growth.  He,  therefore,  wills  the  Bad,  but 
does  the  Good;  therefore,  he  is  a  part  of  the  Creative  En- 
ergy, a  part  of  the  necessary  order  of  the  world. 

We  all  are  ready  to  acknowledge  the  necessity  of  such 
an  eternal  conflict  in  the  physical  universe,  but  Goethe 


Goethe's  Philosophy.  IT 

entertained  a  like  conviction  touching  the  realm  of  mind 
and  morals.  Precisely  as  lie  held  that  all  forms  of  life 
now  extant,  are  the  resultants  of  contending  agencies, 
agencies  for  and  against,  active  throughout  the  whole 
process  of  creation,  so  he  regarded  our  moral  and  spirit- 
ual ideals  and  advancement  as  the  resultant  of  tendencies 
no  less  diverse  or  opposite,  each  contending  for  the 
mastery.  To  Goethe  the  very  conception  of  morality  in- 
volved struggle,  failure,  triumph.  In  other  words,  moral- 
ity involves  the  existence  of  the  Mephistopheiian  element 
within  us,  as  an  indispensable  part  of  our  natures.  This 
Mephistopheiian  element,  conceived  of  as  a  part  of  our- 
selves, is  the  necessary  condition  upon  which  all  possi- 
bility of  spiritual  excellence  depends. 

It  is  just  here  where  the  average  moralist  hesitates  to 
follow.  Goethe's  quasi-pantheistic  or  theistic-pantheistic 
views  are  sometimes  adjudged  to  be  unmoral  if  not  im- 
moral. He  is  made  to  hold  that  God  is  the  author  of 
evil  and  sin.  If  there  is  but  one  force  in  the  universe,  in 
which  there  is  so  much  evil  and  sin,  and  if  God  is  that 
force,  how,  then,  can  we  escape  the  conclusion  that  God 
is  the  author  of  evil?  We  cannot,  except  as  we  realize 
that  evil,  sin,  imperfection  are  mere  abstract  terms  (I  beg 
you  to  understand  me),  expressing  a  comparison  between 
various  states  of  existence,  each  perfect  in  and  of  itself; 
?'.  e.,  when  dissociated  from  every  other  mode  of  existence. 
As  Professor  Falkenberg,  in  his  summary  of  the  philoso- 
phy of  Spinoza,  has  pointed  out,  that  thinker  held  that 
"In  reality  everything  is  that  which  it  can  be,  hence 
without  defect;  everything  is,  in  itself  considered,  per- 
fect; even  the  fool  and  the  sinner  cannot  bo  otherwise 
than  they  are;  they  appear  imperfect  only  when  placed 
beside  the  wise  and  the  virtuous.  Sin  is  thus  only  a 
lesser  reality  than  virtue,  evil  a  1        i  good;  good    and 


18  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

bad,    activity    and    passivity,    power    and   weakness   are 
merely  distinctions  in  degree."1 

I  make  this  quotation  touching  Spinoza's  philosophy 
to  point  out  the  source  of,  or,  at  least,  the  corroborating 
authority  in  Goethe's  philosophy.  Goethe  acknowledged 
himself  the  debtor  of  Spinoza.  They  held,  in  common, 
that  "  particular  cases  of  defect  are  justified  by  the  per- 
fection of  the  whole;"  that  the  Universe  is  perfect  to  an 
Infinite  intelligence,  and  that  only  our  finite,  diminutive 
mental  grasp  fails  to  reach  the  higher  unity. 

Then,  to  sum  up  Goethe's  position  on  what  human 
speech  designates  as  death,  destruction,  and  dissolution 
in  the  physical  universe,  as  sin  and  evil  in  the  spiritual, 
it  is  evident,  that  he  considered  them  the  necessary  con- 
ditions or  stages  in  a  process  of  evolution  and  growth. 
The  ideal  to  which  all  life  is  tending  he  conceived  to  be 
hidden  from  man's  eyes.  Yet  he  was  conscious  of  a 
polarity  or  tendency  upwards.     The 

"  .  .  one  far-off,  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves," 

was  a  reality  to  him.  His  keenest  observation,  his 
strong  intuition  led  him,  nay,  forced  him,  to  acknowledge 
and  revere  "the  Power,  not  ourselves,"  which  in  the 
physical  domain  of  nature  builds  and  destroys,  builds 
and  destroys  and  yet  advances ;  and,  in  the  moral  world, 
succeeds  and  fails,  succeeds  and  fails,  succeeds  and  fails, 
and  yet,  humanly  speaking,  "  makes  for  righteousness." 

But  now,  finally,  let  us  ask:  What  means  or  agencies 
are  at  the  disposal  of  this  Power  to  lead  men  to  a  higher 
estate?  What  then,  according  to  Goethe,  are  the  chief 
factors  in  the  moulding  and  enlarging  and  fashioning  the 

1  History  of  Modern  Philosophy,  p.  140. 


Goethe's  Philosophy.  10 

inner  life  of  man?  How  does  man  fit  into  the  universe? 
What  shall  be  the  standard  of  his  success?  In  other 
words:  What  is  the  purpose  of  man's  existence,  and  what 
means  are  at  his  command  to  attain  this  purpose? 

Goethe's  philosophical  views  respecting  the  unity  and 
the  perfection  of  nature  and  of  the  moral  forces  in  the 
universe  did  not  lead  him  to  entertain  a  laissez  fairc 
creed  or  practice. 

His  constant  watchword  is  "  endeavor,  activity,  toil,  ef- 
fort/' It  is  no  easy  thing  to  shake  off  the  clogs  of 
earth.  You  remember  in  VvTilhelm  Meister's  Lehrbrief  or 
Indenture  this  passage: 

•'Art  is  long,  life  short,  judgment  difficult,  opportunity  transient. 
To  act  is  easy,  to  think,  hard,  to  act  according  to  our  thL.'.u 

troublesome The    excellent    is   rarely   found,   more  rarely 

valued.  The  heights  charm  us;  the  steps  to  it  do  not;  with  the 
summit  in  our  view  we  love  to  walk  along  the  plain."  ' 

How,  then,  is  man  to  train  himself  to  value  the  truly  ex- 
cellent and  not  to  shun  the  weariness  of  the  steps  to  at- 
tain the  height?  Goethe's  answer  is:  through  Culture 
and  Experience;  i.  e.,  through  the  assimilation  of  the 
best  that  civilization  has  produced  in  art,  in  science,  in 
literature,  and  through  the  direct  contact  of  the  ego  with 
its  environment.  Goethe  realized,  as  few  men  of  his  day 
realized,  that  he  was  the  heir  of  Time,  of  the  visible  and 
tangible  products  of  the  past,  as  well  as  of  invisible  and 
intangible  bequests. 

"My  inheritance,"  he  says,  "how  glorious  and  how  fair, 
Time  is  my  seed-field,  of  Time  I  am  heir." 

He  held  that,  of  necessity,  each  human  soul  must  make 
the  life  contemporary  and  preceding  it  the  medium  in 
which  to  unfold  its  powers,  till,  helped  by  infinite  Love> 
the  "stubborn  laurel"  is  twined  about  the  victor's  brow. 

1  Wilhelm   M  ister,  Bk.  VII.,  Chap.  IX. 


20  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

I  put  the  sentence  advisedly  thus,  for,  whatever  may  be 
said  to  the  contrary,  Goethe's  nature  was  essentially  reli- 
gious, bidding  him  to  explore  and  penetrate  whatever  he 
could,  bidding  him,  too,  to  revere  the  unknown.  This 
element  of  reverence,  the  religious  element,  betrays  itself 
constantly  in  all  his  writings.  It  betrays  itself  in  his 
real,  or,  more  frequently,  apparent,  worldliness,  in  his 
nature  cult,  in  all  his  philosophy.  True,  he  himself 
recognizes  and  presses  for  recognition  cultural  influences 
the  importance  and  value  of  which  are  not  appreciated  by  a 
lower  order  of  minds;  influences  which,  Goethe  discerns, 
enter  deeply  into  man's  spiritual  growth.  He  discerns 
in  man  a  restlessness,  a  dissatisfied  longing  after  what- 
not; he  interprets  this  as  an  essential  condition  to  "  pass 
from  more  to  more,"  "from  the  blade  to  the  ear,  after- 
wards to  the  full  corn  in  the  ear."  A  Faust  can  safely 
pledge  his  soul  to  Satan  on  the  condition  that  it  shall  be 
forfeited  only  when  sense  pleasures  shall  forever  content 
it.  That  moment  never  comes.  Man's  place  in  nature  is 
not  to  succumb  to  earth  and  earthly  things,  not  to  rot 
with  the  beasts,  but  to  be  up  and  doing.  Despite  devia- 
tions, man  has  "  an  instinct  of  the  one  true  way."  In  the 
transcendent  mysteries  of  the  spiritual  world,  Faith  and 
Truth  and  Love  are  immense  realities  to  Goethe.  His 
watch-words  are  learn,  do,  ACT. 

"When  the  crowd  sways,  unbelieving, 
Show  the  daring  will  that  warms, 
He  is  crowned  with  all  achieving 
Who  perceives,  and  then  performs."  : 

Perception  and  action,  learning  and  doing,  are  the  cries 
from  the  mouth  of  this  prophet.  Ohne  Hast,  aber  ohne 
Bast;  like  the  very  stars  in  their  orbits,  obeying  the  Al- 
mighty's commands,  man  must  go,  must  fit  himself  red- 
action and  then  act. 


1  Faust,  Part  II,  Act  I. 


Goethe's  Philosophy.  21 

I  said  above  that  Goethe  was  the  apostle  of  culture. 
Yes,  but  he  also  wrapt  a  halo  of  dignity  and  worth  about 
the  common,  the  homespun  realities.  These  he  exalted: 
these  he  idealized.  He  saw,  as  he  said  to  Eckermann  in 
referring  to  TTilhelrn  Meister,  that,  when  man  submits 
to  the  instructions,  which  trivial,  commonplace  things 
can  afford,  he  is  "  like  Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  who  went 
out  to  seek  his  father's  asses  and  found  a  kingdom." 
The  dross  can  be  turned  into  gold;  that  is  precisely  the 
value  of  the  experiences  of  life.  Those  virtues  which  only 
the  highest  stations  can  elicit  and  foster  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  fundamental  to  a  common  humanity.  Scherer 
finds  that  "In  Tasso,  self-denial,  moderation,  and  renun- 
ciation appear  as  the  chief  requirements  for  a  wise  con- 
duct of  life."  This  is  the  ideal  set  forth  not  only  in 
Tasso,  but  in  Wilhelm  Meister  and  in  Faust.  Ultimately 
the  poet  would  have  us  pass  from  self-glorification  to  self- 
renunciation.  Life  is  not  all  the  one,  is  not  all  the  other. 
The  voice  of  the  ancient  goddess  of  wisdom,  Pallas,  bids 
men  to  practice 

"Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control." 
But  Goethe,   while  accepting  this    injunction,   would  go 
further: 

" who  seeks  not  noble  works 

Belongs  but  to  the  elements."1 

Man's  worth  and  value  to  the  world  are  naught,  if  ho 
stops  with  self.  The  virtues,  insisted  on  by  Pallas,  lead 
men  "to  sovereign  power,"  to  act  and  work  in  their  day 
and  generation.  But  he  who  dallies  and  plays  with  life  is 
lost.  The  dreamer,  the  emotionalist,  is  lost.  Werther, 
that  hyper-sensitive  Hamlet,  whose  every  nerve  thrilled 
and  throbbed  with  generous  impulses,  was  lost.  'Tis  not 
enough  to  feel,  not  enough  to  meditate;  we  must  act 

1  Faust,  Part  II.,  V. 


22  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

Goethe  crowned  the  Second  Part  of  Faust  with  a  pre- 
sentation of  benevolent,  altruistic  activity.  He  makes 
Faust  realize  the  truth  that 

"Men  may  rise  on  stepping  stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

He  depicted  Faust  as  being  beaten  back,  driven  to  seek 
shelter  in  this  sphere,  after  having  been  whipped  and 
scourged  by  all  sorts  of  phantoms  and  spectres,  after 
having  realized  the  futihtv  of  making  aught  else  com- 
mensurate  with  the  responsibility  and  the  purposes  of  liv- 
ing. Pardon  my  explicitness.  The  views  indicated  seem 
to  me  to  be  the  ripest  conclusions  of  the  octogenarian 
poet;  they  are  the  legacy  which  the  poet-sage,  the  philos- 
opher-scientist has  left  us.  Of  course  you  have  observed 
the  identity  of  these  results  with  the  Master's  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  If  this  be  all,  you 
may  ask,  then  why  this  meandering,  why  this  insistence 
upon  culture  and  liberty  and  individuality?  Hear  Goethe 
himself: 

"Those  do  not  do  well  who, in  a  solitary, and  exclusive  manner, 
follow  moral  cultivation  by  itself.  On  the  contrary,  it  will  be  found 
that  he,  whose  spirit  strives  for  a  development  of  that  kind,  has 
likewise  every  reason,  at  the  same  time,  to  improve  the  finer  sen- 
tient powers,  that  he  may  not  run  the  risk  of  sinking  from  his 
moral  height,  by  giving  way  to  a  lawless  fancy  and  degrading  his 
moral  nature,  by  allowing  it  to  take  delight  in  tasteless  baubles, 
if  not  in  something  worse."  l 

Again  he  says: 

"The  whole  universe  lies  before  us,  like  a  quarry  before  the 
master  builder,  who  only  deserves  this  name  if  he,  out  of  these 
fortuitous  stone-masses,  build  a  structure  corresponding  to  his 
ideal,  and,  if  he  do  his  work  with  economy,  skill,  and  purpose. 
Everything  without  us  is  element,  material,  indeed,  I  may  say 
everything  about  us  is  such,  but  deep  within  lies  the  creative 
power,  capable  of  shaping  all  that  is  to  be,  giving  us  neither  rest 
nor  quiet,  till  we  have,  in  somo  way,  disposed  of  and  given  form 
and  shape  to  the  elements  around  us."  l 

1  Wilhelm  Meister,  Bekenntnisse  einer  schoenen  Seele. 


1 


Goeihc's  Philosophy.  23 

This  being  Goethe's  view  of  man  and  his  environments, 
■we  can  understand  his  insistence  on  culture,  on  all  that  • 
assures  breadth  and  scope  and  growth.  This  explains  to 
us  his  reversion  to  Hellenism,  to  those  rare  ideals  of 
beauty  and  form  of  the  ancient  world.  Modern  indus- 
trialism did  not  content  him,  conventional  Christianity, 
with  its  penchant  for  self-abasement  and  dogmatism,  did 
not  content  him.  Along  with  all  that  the  modern  world 
has.  he  would  enter  into  the  past,  make  antiquity  sub- 
serve the  present,  by  teaching  that  present 

"Grace,  Majesty  and  the  calm  Bliss  of  life." 

He  understood  the  influence  the  matchless  ideals  of  the 
"old  pagan  world  of  beauty  "  had  on  man's  development. 
True,  they  were  only  artistic,  intellectual  types,  not  neces-  | 
sarily  moral.  But  morality  is  not  the  whole  of  this  world : 
growth  along  other  lines  is  equally  demanded  by  man's 
nature.  The  fine  arts  are  not  necessarily  moral  pursuits, 
nevertheless,  only  man  with  an  infinite  capacity  for  ad- 
vancement can  cultivate  them.  They  are  expressions  of 
the  higher  life  within  him.  The  centuries  since  the  Italian 
Renaissance  justify  Goethe's  position.  The  asceticism  of 
the  middle  ages  liad  to  be  supplemented,  or  rather,  sup- 
planted by  juster  views  of  man  and  his  place  in  the  uni- 
verse. Man  had  been  enveloped  by  the  choke-damp  of 
tradition  and  gloomy  dogma,  the  Renaissance  let  in  light, 
and  beauty  and  renewed  vigor.  There  was,  accordingly. 
a  blending  of  greater  moral  earnestness  and  greater  hu- 
man freedom,  a  more  adequate  recognition  of  mas  as  a 
brother  and  an  exaltation  of  self.  Existence  was  placed 
in  anew  perspective.  Henceforth  neither  Epicureans  nor 
flagellants  presented  ideals  to  the  world.  A  n«w  era,  an 
era  of  toil  and  discovery  and  progress  had  dawned. 

In  the  Second  Part  of   Faust  the  Aged  Toiler  Lb  rep- 
resented by  Goethe  as  having  seen  the  white  wand  of   the 


24  Goethe's  Philosophy. 

spectre,  Death.  For  a  moment  he  was  terrified.  He  had 
not  yet  earned  his  liberty,  he  had  not  yet  freed  himself 
entirely  from  the  thralls.  Could  he  but  stand  a  free,  un- 
trammeled,  manly  man,  up-borne,  by  nature,  resigned  as  a 
flower  or  a  bird!  But  these  brain  spectres!  These  phan- 
tom shapes!  Blindness  is  breathed  upon  him;  his  eye- 
sight darkens;  but,  lo!  The  splendor  of  an  inward  vision 
shines ! 

"The  night  seems  deeper  now  to  press  around  me," 
he  breaks  out, 

"Bat  in  my  inmost  spirit  all  is  light. 
I  rest  not  till  the  finished  work  has  crowned  me." 

Active !     Active ! !     Active ! ! ! 

"Yes,  to  this  thought  I  hold  with  firm  persistence; 
The  last  results  of  wisdom  stamps  it  true: — 
He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  existence 
Who  daily  conquers  them  anew. 

What  is  this  to  conquer  freedom  and  existence  daily  ?  I 
am  persuaded  that  Goethe  meant  to  urge  a  constant  will- 
ingness, yea,  an  avidity  to  be  further  to-day  than  yester- 
day; to  be  ever  ready  to  exchange  the  good  of  yesterday 
with  the  better  of  to-day.  He  meant  that  men  should  not 
be  cloyed  by  custom  and  conventionalities ;  to  see  right  as 
God  gives  them  to  see  the  right  and  to  obey  the  law  of 
growth  unflinchingly.  To  conquer  our  freedom  is  to  be 
manly,  alert,  wide-awake  morally,  intellectually,  religi- 
ously, open  and  eager  in  the  pursuit  of  truth.  Truth  is 
only  attained  by  striving.  Does  the  man  asleep  in  torpor, 
whether  religious,  intellectual  or  moral — does  he  deserve 
the  sense  of  freedom  ?  Is  it  not  a  profound  fact  that  only 
he,  who  is  willing  to  don  the  armor,  to  conquer  his  free- 
dom, is  free  and  alive  indeed?  I  can  illustrate  this  dic- 
tum of  Goethe's  best  by  an  appeal  to  history.  Why 
have  races  and  peoples  perished  ?     Is  it  not  because  they 


Goethe's  Philosopluj.  26 

kept  not  pace  with  the  totality  of  advance,  man  was  mak- 
ing? Did  these  perished  races  adjust  themselves  to  the 
sounder  knowledge  or  sounder  life  principles  that  others 
had  acquired?  Did  they  keep  vigilant  watch  on  the 
towers  of  their  possessions?  The  towers  were  stormed 
and  taken,  and  the  consequence  is  that  Assyria  and  Baby- 
lon, Egypt,  Greece,  and  Boine  are  no  more.  Was  not 
Goethe  right  in  saying 

"Das  ist  der  Weisheit  hochster  Schluss:  — 
Nur  der  verdient  sick  Freiheit  wie  das  Leben 
Der  taglich  sie  erobern  muss?" 

This,  Goethe  puts  before  us,  as  the  lave  of  life.  He 
urges  constant  vigilance,  constant  effort  to  grow  and  to 
receive  light,  "more  light."  Every  man  can  advance  on 
this  line, — he  can  conquer  inertness  and  seek  to  be  alive 
and  true.  Man  is  "dowered  with  Day  and  Night"  'tis 
true,  with  noblest  impulses  and  with  ignoble  passions,  and 
yet  he  is  called  to  advance.  Goethe  would  have  us  think, 
as  did  Browning,  that 

"All  good  things 
Are  ours,  nor  soul  helps  flesh  more,  now,  than  flesh  helps  soul." 

Human  existence  is  not  a  mistake.  The  Almighty  has 
not  made  a  huge  blunder  in  framing  his  worlds,  has  not 
made  a  huge  blunder  in  framing  our  dust;  nor  has  he  failed 
to  provide  means  for  attaining  the  fullness  of  life. 


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